okay here's where it may get a little confusing,
"Adrienne" Connie
"Jack" Guy
"Steve" Kevin
Those are their new names, they've shed their old identities. Thanks for reviewing. This fic is now finally finished!
Charlie Conway felt sick to his stomach. He felt worse than sick, he felt like a part of him was dying a slow and painful death.
He'd just received word about Connie, his dear sweet Connie. His dear, sweet, DEAD Connie.
How could she do this? He wondered for the millionth time. How could she throw herself off of a cliff for him of all people.
Him was that lowlife Guy Germaine.
Germaine had cost him everything.
He refused to believe she was gone.
"I have one question for you Adrienne" Jack asked his girl.
Adrienne/Connie giggled.
"Go right ahead" she asked her man as she sat on a chair in a dingy motel bathroom whilst Jack/Guy's new friend Kevin/Steve applied the dye to her previously untouched hair.
"How'd you know it was me?" he asked.
Steve paused in his job anxious to hear the answer. He too was curious how Adrienne knew who Jack was instantly.
It was almost like something out of a soap opera.
"Simple Jack, your eyes and your smell. Two things I'll never, ever forget about you" she replied shifting in her seat.
"My smell?" Jack was slightly horrified.
Adrienne suppressed a laugh when she saw him try to discreetly sniff himself.
"Not a bad smell Jack, just your smell, your aura I suppose. I just knew it was you" she laughed. It took some getting used to calling him Jack.
"I have a question for you" Steve spoke up as he continued applying the dye to Adrienne's hair.
"Go ahead" Adrienne said.
"Any regrets about leaving your old life behind?" he asked.
Guy moved closer anxious to hear her answer.
"Absolutely none" Adrienne replied truthfully. She had her Jack and that was all that mattered.
"This was all she left behind?" Julie Gaffney was beside herself. How could she have been so oblivious that her friend's pain and suffering ran this deep.
"Looks like it" Charlie replied feeling a little sceptical. At the gathering after Guy's memorial Connie had spent the entire afternoon talking to some strange guy that Fulton said was one of Guy's old family friends. Connie had then told him that this Jack fellow was a relative.
Something didn't seem right.
"There, don't you look the picture" Steve had finished Adrienne's new hair and it looked stunning.
Gone were her chocolate strands and in place was a soft golden blond. She looked like a new person.
"Wow!" Jack had entered the room and stopped dead when he saw his girl.
"I feel like Madonna or something" Adrienne laughed self-consciously running her fingers through her freshly dyed hair.
"Now where have I heard that one before?" Jack laughed remembering their first encounter with Coach Gordon Bombay and his limo.
Adrienne just laughed, recalling the memory also.
"Now that we've established she looks awesome, I have a little present for you kiddies" Steve handed Jack a fat envelope.
"What's this?" Jack asked.
"My insurance policy" Steve replied evenly.
Jack peeked inside the envelope.
"Why so much?" he asked thinking he'd never seen so much money in his entire life.
"Look, you're alright kid but I gotta be sure. Don't squeal on me and I'll sure as shit won't squeal on you, either of you" he said. This was his way of being affectionate.
"Thanks" Jack extended his hand and shook it.
"Right kids we're done, I'm off to face the big bad world. Take care of him love will ya" Steve indicated to Adrienne.
"Sure, thank you so much, for everything" she said giving the man a hug.
"No problems doll. Take care the both of ya, no offence but I don't want to see either of your mugs again" he laughed and grabbed his bags. In a matter of moments he was gone.
"Looks like its just you and me babe" Jack threw an arm around his girl.
"Yeah, you and me"
"So no body was ever recovered?" Charlie was down at the State Coroner's office asking for any information about Connie Moreau's apparent suicide.
"No sir, nothing but a handbag and some other personal items which are logged right here" the clerk handed him a list of items recovered at the scene.
"Thank you for your help" Charlie thanked the woman. He was armed with the information he needed to begin his own investigation.
THREE YEARS LATER
"I'll never grow tired of this place" Adrienne yawned and stretched her long bronzed legs.
"Me either and I'll never, ever grow tired of watching you walk around in a bikini" Jack grinned cheekily but earned a kiss from his woman for his comment.
"I'll never get sick of a bikini. I love the sunshine, the warm sand, the clear blue sea" she said indicating to their surroundings.
Moving to the Carribean had been Jack's idea and Adrienne had been a little reluctant at first. She was used to snow and ice hockey but once they arrived, she changed her tune rather quickly.
To those who knew "Adrienne and Jack" they were a music producer and an ex-model who wanted to escape the pressures of Los Angeles and New York. Everyone wanted a piece of Adrienne and Jack. They were filthy rich after all.
"These arrived for you Mr Conway" a receptionist entered Charlie Conway, Attorney at Law's office and placed a manilla folder on his desk.
"Thank you Margaret" Charlie took the folder from her hands and waited until she'd left the room.
He opened the file and looked through various notes and glossy black and white photos of the subjects.
A one Jack Phillips and an Adrienne Latrell.
"Gotcha" he grinned and reached for the phone.
"Aren't you glad I suggested taking the yacht out?" Jack asked his girlfriend.
Adrienne smiled "I sure am" she replied.
Jack had ulterior motives for bringing her out on the yacht. He fingered the velvet box in his pocket and turned away to pour another glass of champagne. Now for the final touch.
"Here you are my dear" he handed her a long crystal flute filled with the bubbly liquid.
"Thank you" she accepted the glass and took a sip.
She realised that something was floating in her glass.
"Jack?" she asked delicately sticking her index finger into the glass and pulling out the offending object.
"Yes?" Jack played dumb.
"What is this?" she pulled out the ring and gasped when she realised what it was.
"Is this…" she stopped unable to finish the sentence.
"It is" he said taking the glass and the ring from her and getting down on one knee.
"Adrienne Latrell, will you marry me?" he asked holding out the champagne soaked ring.
"Oh my god YES!" she screamed and hugged her now fiancé.
"Baby, I have to borrow your finger for a second" he said when she still hadn't let go after five minutes.
"Sorry" she grinned sheepishly and held out her left hand.
"I've got you now Germaine" Charlie muttered under his breath as the boat inched closer to the yacht.
"You'd better be right about this Conway or I'm arresting you" Special Agent Dean Portman of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more commonly known as the "FBI" told his childhood friend.
"Trust me I'm right about this" Charlie replied knowing he had Germaine trapped on a yacht with the love of Charlie's life.
"Okay, here we go, positions men" Dean spoke into his radio and within seconds the yacht was surrounded.
It paid to have friends in high places.
"Jack what the hell is that?" Adrienne pointed to the numerous boats that were surrounding them.
"I don't know. Does that say? Shit! Baby it's the FBI" Jack was panicking.
This could not be good.
"Get the case honey, the time has come" Jack instructed his fiancé. She nodded and went below deck to retrieve what Jack had asked for.
"Jack Phillips?" the loud voice boomed over the loudspeaker.
"Yes?" Jack replied.
"Jack this is the FBI, keep your hands where we can see them. Is there anyone else on board?"
"Just my fiancé" Jack replied trying to keep his voice calm.
Fiancé? Charlie wasn't sure he heard right.
His girl had actually agreed to marry that murderer?
Oh hell no, not on his watch.
So he stepped forward in plain view of Jack Phillips and made his presence known.
Is that Charlie Conway? Jack wondered when a tall man stepped forward.
Adrienne had come back up with the case in hand. To anyone else it looked like a cigar box and to anyone who opened it probably would think it was a cigar box.
However, she almost dropped the box when she saw the man Jack had just seen.
"Charlie?" she whispered feeling the fear rising in her throat.
The jig was up.
They knew who they were.
"Connie, do you have yours?" Guy called her by her real name for the first time in three years.
"Yeah" she replied and Guy noticed the small bulge at the small of her back.
He was saddened it had come to this but it was the only way they could be together in peace.
Tears streamed down her face as Guy grabbed her by the hand and gently guided her down the stairs and below the deck.
"FBI stay where you are!" the voice over the loudspeaker ordered but Connie and Guy paid no mind. They had a plan and it was going to be carried out.
Once below the deck Guy took a hold of Connie's hand with his left and aimed the pistol at his own temple. Connie did the same with her own temple.
"I love you Constance Elizabeth Moreau" Guy told her.
"I love you Guy Jean Germaine" Connie replied.
"See you soon" he said.
"See you sooner" she smiled.
On the count of three they both pulled the trigger.
"Was this what you wanted Charlie?" Dean Portman asked his friend upon discovery of the two deceased Ducks still holding hands. Connie's engagement ring was sparkling under the overhead light.
"No" Charlie admitted shaking his head sadly.
He'd lost and he'd accepted his defeat a little too late.
Connie and Guy were gone forever and there was no bringing them back.
"This gets a gag order put on it" Dean was on the phone to someone, probably the Director of the FBI.
"Yes sir, I'll let everyone know" he said and hung up.
"Charlie" Dean placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Yes" Charlie was almost unable to speak. If he'd just let it be, then none of this would have happened.
"This goes no further, we're not gonna put the Ducks through losing them again. I've cleared it with Director Burns, we're the only people that are ever gonna know" he said.
"Thanks Dean" Charlie took one last look at his love and left the yacht with a heavy heart.
Guy had made the sacrifice for Connie and in turn she'd made one for him, the ultimate sacrifice.
and its finished!